THE SANTA BARBARA ACTUALIZATION
by Tribeca
Summary: Penny drives Sheldon to Santa Barbara for a physics conference. He never makes it to a lecture or seminar but he does spend a lot of time with Penny. One shot.


**A/N: ****I don't even know where this came from. I was doing research for a multi-chapter fic and I came across a YouTube clip of a famous beach scene from an old movie (From Here to Eternity) and next thing I knew, Penny and Sheldon were hanging out on the beaches of my mind. I soon had two one shots written with Sheldon and Penny on the beach. This is one of them.**

**With hopes of releasing some Shenny energy into the vast universe...**

THE SANTA BARBARA ACTUALIZATION

The salty wind bit angrily at his face. He stared out into the horizon and studied the line where the sea met the sky and then he dropped his gaze to the sand. His hands supported the weight of his head, his fingers haphazardly brushing through his hair.

She squeezed the back of his neck as she bent her knees and lowered her body down beside his. The smile she flashed him sent a warmth through him unlike any he'd known before.

"I brought your jacket."

"I knew you would."

She draped the windbreaker across his shoulders and then lifted her eyes to the ocean. She pulled her own jacket tighter and reached to zip the front. She hadn't realized how much the temperature had dropped since the sun had begun to sink into the sea.

He shook his head and mentally sorted though his schedules, his carefully laid plans, and his life's mission. She was nowhere in any of his charts or spreadsheets. But here she was by his side. Right where he wanted her. Right where she belonged.

She was only supposed to drive him to Santa Barbara for the conference. She was going to relax, lay by the pool, and maybe do a little shopping while he attended the endless lectures and seminars and then drive him back to Pasadena three days later.

He never made it to a single lecture hall. Never crossed the threshold of a conference room door. Never even signed the registration log.

"I suppose some part of me always knew."

She laughed and reminded him of all the heated arguments, the battles to the death, the name calling, the plots to one up the other. All ignited by underlying passion, spurred by repressed desire.

"Why did it take us so long?"

Her head was tilted up, her eyes squinting from the sand particles that rode the waves of the salty breeze. He smiled at the sight of her sun brushed face, the way her nose was slightly burnt and peeling from the exposure. He reached a long finger out and smoothed it across her features.

"Because you were so stubborn."

"Me?"

"You."

She laughed at the irony of his statement. _She_ was the stubborn one?

"This changes everything. Nothing will ever be the same again."

He kissed her gently, making sure he didn't lose control there on the public beach in the same way he had lost control in her room the night before.

"I don't want things to ever be the same again Penny."

She nodded in agreement and rested her head against his shoulder.

"Last night was beautiful Sheldon."

He inhaled deeply and felt a slight shudder pass through his body as he thought about the night before. It had all seemed so innocent at the time. His room was across the hall from hers. As he was unpacking, he had discovered her shoes that she had snuck into his luggage (because, she later told him, she didn't have enough room in her own bag) and he went to take them to her and to inquire why she had felt it was acceptable to put them in his suitcase. He pointed out to her that now all of his things were contaminated with her germs.

She was insulted that he implied she was germ ridden and had reached back and grabbed her discarded t-shirt off the bed and tried to smear her "germs" right into his face in an effort to wipe that condescending smirk off his mouth. She hadn't expected his quick reflex to bring a large hand up and grab her wrist inches before she made contact with his skin. Nor had she anticipated the momentary pause between the two of them, that moment when time stood still, when the attraction registered with both of them, when she rose up to meet him as his lips came down to hers.

He didn't know how, because he was inexperienced in this particular arena of social interactions, he had ended up with her pressed tightly against the wall as his hips involuntarily rolled towards hers and his hands frantically tugged at her clothing. Nor did he know, or care, how quickly she had his shirts over his head and his belt and pants undone and on the floor.

Images of his mouth on her body, her hands on parts of him that had never been touched by a woman flashed though his mind. Instinct alone had shown him the way and he had never craved another person's germs as badly as he craved hers. He had loved her through the night, experiencing emotions and physical pleasures he'd only read about, that he had (wrongly) dismissed as hokum and a waste of valuable time.

"Yes it was."

He shook his head and felt the blood rush to his face. Here in the aftermath he realized that this, whatever it was, was a game changer.

"So what happens when we get back to Pasadena?" she asked.

"We stay together."

She sighed and reached to touch his face. The blue of his eyes put the ocean to shame.

"I'd like that."

She brushed her lips across his cheek and whispered, "Let's go back to the room."


End file.
